Work Text:
Aurora
New Syldra’s grass is different from Terra’s. It moves more. When the wind whispers across the hills, the grass whispers back.
They dance together.
The sun slowly rises in our backyard, reflecting off the white roses adorning nearly every surface and painting them brilliant shades of pink and orange. The stone pathway that leads through our garden is still damp from the morning dew.
The air is cold and fresh.
Kal watches me walking through our garden. In just a few hours, we’ll be married.
I hear the back door open and shut.
“Be’shmai.” Kal comes behind me, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and tucking me safely into his chest.
“Hey, you,” I whisper back. When Kal originally proposed the idea of getting married after Scar and Finian did, he didn’t seem fully sure of the idea. As with a lot of things, he was willing to do it simply because he thought it would make me happy. Since then, he’s come around it more. Syldrathi don’t have weddings.
“Are you excited?” Even though we’ve spent months planning today, even though I’ve told him a million times that he’s perfect, he still doubts himself. It is one of his more infuriating features, and one I am determined to mend.
“Kal.” I try my best to look serious, even though the wiggly-giddy feeling I get whenever I look at him is especially strong today. “You are being silly.”
“I would never be silly,” he deadpans before kissing the top of my head. I turn in his arms.
“Are you sure about that?” I tilt my head up, resting my chin on his sternum.
“Yes,” he murmurs deeply as he leans down. He rests his forehead on mine for a moment. His warm lips meet mine, and for a second, I forget about everything. The wind stills and the sun stops its trek up the sky. The morning clouds blanket us in a summer haze, like the brief rainbows in the sprinkler water I would jump through as a kid.
“Heathens!” Scarlett’s accusatory voice rings in the air.
Kal sighs against my lips and lifts his head.
“Hey, Scar,” I say, wrapping my arms around Kal’s waist.
“Are you guys ready?” She raises a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at the both of us.
Kal glances down at me as I look up at him.
“We are.”
The sun’s higher now. The morning came and went. Our family fills the living room: Scar and a begrudged Saedii in matching dresses, Tyler and Fin in black tuxes yapping about ships or something.
The day feels like a dream like it’s not really going to happen. I pry my eyes away from the sunny window to observe Kal pacing in a circle around the yard like a madman.
“He’s going to make himself dizzy,” Finian whispers to me, noticing my gaze.
“I will go talk to him,” Saedii announces to the group. Without further preamble, she gets up, kicking off the fancy heels Scar made her wear.
Kal
The tradition of marriage is not one I am familiar with. Of course, having been to Scarlett and Fin’s wedding and planning my own, I am somewhat knowledgeable about the customs, but it is an anxious day.
Yet, instead of dreading it like I feared I would, I am excited.
The door opens behind me.
“Brother,” my sister's voice cuts through the air like the knife I am sure she carries on her body somewhere. I turn to face her and sigh.
“Hello.”
“Why do you act like a—” she curses. “What is it he called it—” I know she’s talking about Tyler. “—chicken with its head cut off.”
“I do know what a chicken is.”
She lets out a dramatic sigh. “Never mind. What is wrong with you?”
“Nothing is wrong with me.”
Saedii raises an eyebrow. “Is that so? You normally worship Aurora like a dog, and yet, today, you stay away from her. Are you dissatisfied with her?”
“Of course not. It is just—”
“Just what?” Saedii comes closer to me, guiding me to sit down on the mossy bench that sits next to our driveway.
“I am nervous. I am nervous that I will mess today up for Aurora. What if I ruin the ceremony? What if I make myself look foolish?”
“You are being foolish.”
Saedii’s cold hands catch my arm as I try to leave the bench.
“Aurora loves you,” she starts, “And it is ridiculous of you to be so worried. You are the one who proposed this to her, no? The stakes are not so high.”
“Still—”
“Hush. Come inside.”
“Okay.”
“And tell Scarlett to stop making me wear those ridiculous shoes.”
Aurora
Kal and I walk down the aisle together, hand in hand. My pearly white shoes click against the stone. Tyler stands opposite us at the end. Somehow, he is an officiant. Scarlett and Saedii stand behind him. I think I catch Kal’s sister send him an encouraging nod. Finian stands behind Tyler, looking at Scarlett.
We make it to the end of the path.
Tyler starts to speak.
We say our vows. We exchange rings.
We kiss.
After what feels like a millisecond he pulls away, looking down at me somewhat sheepishly as his ears turn purple. I hear his voice in my head.
I love you, Be’shmai.
“I love you too, sweetie.”